Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jan. 12, 1995:
Malik Shabazz' daughter, Qubilah, is indicted by a federal grand jury
on allegedly trying to hire a hit man to kill 'Nation of Islam' leader,
Louis Farrakhan, who Malcolm X's family believes played a role in
his 1965 assassination.

The following day, in the wake of
public suspicion regarding Farrakhan's role in Malcolm X's slaying
30 years earlier, the Nation of Islam moves quickly to shift the
focus of public attention from Farrakhan to the government. Nation
officials call a press conference and issue a press release, which
ominously reads, "The identity of the alleged plotters was said
to be some members of a 'Muslim extremist group'. We do not know
Ms. Shabazz to be a member of any such group. We call on the FBI
to explain their assertion." Was this true, or was it simply another
ploy in a legacy of misinformation?

Indeed, a glimpse into the
history and development of 'The Nation Of Islam,' shows a
group which has traditionally marketed itself as dedicated
to the brotherhood, benefit and upliftment of American blacks,
while the Nation and the media continually refer to them as
the premier American Islamic organization. However, the historical
record of the group tells quite a different story. Over the
years, a pattern of rampant deceit, manipulation and violence
has prevailed, targeting Muslims, black critics, and even
its own following, which dates from the very beginning of
the movement.

On May 27, 1929, Wallace Dodd
Ford, an immigrant New Zealander of Caucasian/Polynesian parentage,
was released from California's San Quentin prison after serving
three years for selling narcotics in Los Angeles. Ford travelled
to Chicago and then Detroit where he posed as a Bible-toting,
itinerant silk and rug peddler 'from the East.' Ford attracted
a following by blending a mixture of ideas adapted from Christianity,
the Qadiani translation of the Qur'an, and numerous Messianic,
Depression-era cult leaders, Marcus Garvey, Father Divine
etc.

Using up to eighteen different
aliases, among them, "W. Fard Muhammad," and "W.D. Fard,"
Ford variously identified himself as an Arab, a Hawaiian,
and a black . He claimed to have been born in Mecca, of being
the descendant of Prophet Muhammad, and finally, 'the Apostle
of Allah.' During this period, he met Elijah Poole from Sandersville,
Georgia. Poole, an unemployed assembly line worker and former
follower of Drew Ali's "Moorish Temple", was mesmerized by
Ford's aura and became his devoted follower. Ford changed
Poole's name to Elijah Karriem, and on July 4, 1930, a little
more than one year after his prison release, Ford, with Karriem's
assistance, formed 'the Nation Cult of Islam.'

For a fee of ten dollars, Ford
gave Islamic sounding names to cult members, Elijah and his
family going through a series of name changes, finally settling
on Muhammad. Among Ford's teachings, was a call for followers
to sacrifice whites in order for the person 'to return to
his home in Mecca.' Followers were also encouraged to believe
in human sacrifice, 'of himself or his loved ones if Allah
requires it.' In November of 1932, Robert Karriem Harris,
one of the earliest members of 'the Nation Cult of Islam',
was convicted of murder in Detroit in the sacrificial slaying
of Nation follower, James J. Smith, amidst reports of other
slayings. This event, referred to in Detroit as the infamous
'Voodoo Murders,' led to the confinement of Elijah Karriem
(who at the time used the alias, Ghulam Bogans) to a mental
ward, and the banish of his teacher, Wallace Dodd Ford to
Chicago.

The departure of Ford in 1934
led to deadly power struggles within Elijah Karriem's own
family, as his brother Khallatt Muhammad threatened Elijah
and forced him to flee from Detroit to Chicago. With Ford's
departure, Karriem changed his name to Elijah Muhammad, elevated
his teacher to the status of 'Allah in person' and himself
to 'the Messenger of Allah.' From the 1940's onward, the Nation
has recruited its staunchest following from prisons, thus
the violent pattern degenerated into a gangster-style reign
of terror against ex-'Nation' followers who renounced Elijah
Muhammad. The practice of intimidation reached a boiling point
during the 1960's and 70's as a number of Nation leaders pitted
'brother against brother' as in a macabre chess game, this
amidst reports of Elijah and his family's immorality.

In 1964, Aubrey Barnett, a
former Boston minister under Louis X Farrakhan, quit the group
after being fed up with the deceptions. Barnett was soon after
viciously assaulted on a Boston street by 13 of Elijah's men.
On November 5, 1964, ex-member Kenneth Morton, died from internal
injuries suffered when he was beaten by four members of 'the
Nation.' During the same year, Malcolm X, former national
spokesman for Elijah Muhammad, renounced Elijah's organization,
made Hajj and became a Muslim, and officially changed his
name to Al-Hajj Malik Shabazz; openly declaring Elijah Muhammad
to be a false prophet, thief and fornicator. This led to Elijah
printing a series of articles critical of Malik Shabazz in
issues of Muhammad Speaks, referring to Malik Shabazz as a
'hypocrite,' including a call for Malik Shabazz' death written
by Louis X Farrakhan.

On January 6, 1965, ex-member
Benjamin Brown, who left 'the Nation' to establish a masjid,
was shot in front of his masjid. This was followed by a series
of unsuccessful attempts on Malik Shabazz' life by Nation
members. On February 21, 1965, Malik Shabazz was assassinated
by Nation members in New York City. This was immediately followed
by the brutal beating in Boston of Leon 4X Ameer, a former
bodyguard for Malik Shabazz. Left in a coma for weeks as a
result of the beating, Ameer emerged from the hospital in
a vegetative state with permanent brain damage. He died shortly
thereafter.

In 1971, twenty-five Nation
members walked out of Temple no. 2 in Chicago, with the complaint
that not enough money collected from members was reaching
poor blacks. This led to the murder of two of the dissidents.
In 1972, author Hakeem A. Jamal, a friend of Malik Shabazz
and like him, an outspoken critic of Elijah Muhammad, was
gunned down by Nation members. On January 18, 1973 in Washington
DC, the most gruesome of murders took place when several assassins
were dispatched from Elijah Muhammad's Philadelphia branch
temple to kill ex-follower Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, who had written
dozens of letters to Elijah's temples nationwide, calling
Elijah a 'lying deceiver who was stealing his followers' money
and dooming them to Hell'. The assassins entered Hamaas' home,
finding seven members of his family, all women and children.
The assassins beat and shot the women and children numerous
times, ransacking the house, then drowning two infants in
a sink and tub. Hamaas' daughter Amina, who survived despite
being shot six times in the head at close range, recalled
that one of the killers asked her, "Why did your father write
those letters?" His last words to her were, "Don't mess with
Elijah." The killers fled, but after a nationwide manhunt,
all were eventually captured and convicted.

Between late 1973 and mid-1974,
the city of San Francisco was terrorized by the 'Zebra' serial
killings carried out by followers of Elijah Muhammad. Reviving
the original 1930's Nation teachings, the killers believed
that godhood could be achieved by murdering non-blacks. For
a 179-day period, the killers brutally assaulted, robbed,
and sodomised a total of twenty-three persons, leaving fifteen
dead.

After Elijah Muhammad's death
on February 25, 1975, his son, W.D. Mohammed, ascended to
the leadership; in the process, reshaping the organization
and its beliefs. Yet on November 22, 1975, 12 members of the
Islamic Party of North America, which had written newspaper
articles denouncing the son's refusal to renounce his father's
beliefs, were attacked and beaten with clubs, tire irons and
pipes in Newark, New Jersey by followers of W.D. Mohammed.

In 1977, Louis Farrakhan, disgruntled
with organizational changes under W.D. Mohammed, left W.D.
Mohammed's leadership to re-start the organization and beliefs
of the former 'Nation'. His group today commands a following
including a variety of gang members, rap artists, and assorted
nationalists.

The violent pattern continued
in October 1990, where on Howard University campus, fifteen
Farrakhan members attacked two Muslim university students
following their public criticism of Farrakhan and Elijah Muhammad.
In May of 1993, W.D. Mohammed declared in a London interview
with The Muslim News, that Louis Farrakhan 'respects Islam'
and 'he does a lot of good.' He added: "He is friendly with
us and we should be friendly with him.".

REFERENCES

Braden, Charles Samuel, These
Also Believe: A Study of Modern American Cults and Minority Religious
Movements, (MacMillan, NY, 194 9)